This was a cool one - picked it up last week and it had a bottled date of May 18, 2011. That seemed like it was intentional - that they held them back for a while, but maybe it just sat somewhere. Either way, I'm sure the taste was effected by this, and here's how:

It pours a nice golden color with decent head and lacing. The aroma is uniquely pungent and slightly yeasty - like and unusual wheat beer.

The taste is also unique. It tastes tangy and yeasty and a bit fruity. It's definitely something different. I'm not sure it is true to style, but it is very pleasant. The aftertaste lingers a bit funky too. I'm not sure if I want to drink this with dinner - I think I'll polish it off while cooking.

The pre-aged Belgian I thought I had here was maybe an over the hill Belgian that was still very interesting and drinkable.

Appearance: Yellow beer, a little bit of chill haze to it, thin white head.Aroma: Aroma was Belgian, but some more American smells as well. Flavor: The first sip is a light body with fine fizzy carbonation with toasted malts. Texture is a little thin but that just makes the beer easier to drink. It’ medium bodied, with a slightly hoppy finish.Overall: Good toasted malt flavor, a pretty good drinkable beer. A very good beer for the price. They probably retired this beer to concentrate on the brews that could demand a better price point.

This was a random pickup; there are still some on shelves here and I hadn't tried it yet. Now I feel lucky.

This pale ale is that, a bright pale yellow with even brighter medium yellow highlights. It's extremely bubbly, and the head it forms is very frothy and dense, situating on top of the beer at higher than one finger. Lacing is chunky with some webbing, and generally quite plentiful.There's lots of fresh white pepper, some greenery and raw young wood, and softer fruity esters on the nose with plenty of zest, citrus and spicing. There's a strong but gentle yeasty (mustier) undertone with lots of bread to the malts, too.The flavor brings lots of nicely spices orange and lemon, some gentle rind-like bitterness, with a sort of dryer quality to the malts on the tongue, more crackery than bready. Pepper is still strong, along with sweeter spiciness, and the raw greenery is added to by an earthiness in the hops.The carbonation in this beer is very nice, plentiful but soft and not too filling, velvety smooth without giving up the crisp bite. Dryness is forward but isn't allowed to dominate too strongly, as some candi-sugar sweetness works on the palate to keep this beer even.

Overall: When Goose Island announced it would no longer brew Demolition, I bought a bottle wherever I saw it. This was one of the first in a long line of GI specialty beers. When young, it was a nice attempt at a Belgian-style Golden ale. With aging, the hops are long gone and it has become more of a farmhouse ale. Still enjoyable, but it has definitely reached maturity.